Although the world's youngest divorcee rate is in Yemen and the current record is held Nujood Ali, Nigeria's youngest divorcee Maimuna Abduahi tells her story as she divorces her husband at age fourteen (14).
She ran away, bore with scars of a forced and abusive marriage.
"I'm too scared to go back home," she whispers, a frown crinkling her brow as she fiddles nervously with her hands. "I know they will force me to go back to my husband."
Maimuna is one of thousands of divorced girls in Nigeria, children who were forced into marriage and have since run away or been thrown out by their husbands. They are victims of a belief that girls should get wed rather than educated. Maimuna's former husband, Mahammadu Saidu, blames her few years of school for her disobedience.
"She had too much ABCD," he says. "Too much ABCD."
Child marriage is very common in Northern Nigeria. Across the country, one in five girls are married before the age of 15, according to the United Nations.
"It's our culture to give our girls in marriage," he says in a reasoning tone. "From the age of 12, a girl can go to her husband's house."
If Education is responsible for the eye opener and Boko Haram intends to stop Nigerians from seeking education, there should be a revision to the northern culture.
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